Marsh McCall, TV comedy producer who got start in Palo Alto, dies

Marsh Terrell McCall, a longtime TV comedy producer who got his start with a humor column at his hometown newspaper in Palo Alto, died after collapsing of unknown causes at his Los Angeles home May 21. He was 52.

Mr. McCall, born in Massachusetts, moved with his family to Palo Alto at age 12, where his father, Marsh McCall, was a noted classics professor at Stanford University.

He attended Gunn High School and graduated from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in English and creative writing. He worked in his 20s as a reporter for the Peninsula Times-Tribune, a now-defunct daily, covering the city of Menlo Park — and writing a humor column.

In 1993, Mr. McCall, a Monty Python buff and Beatles fan, took a chance and moved to New York. There, he was among the first writers hired for “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” where he worked alongside Louis CK, Robert Smigel, Bob Odenkirk and Andy Richter. Eventually, Mr. McCall became head writer of the show, ever on the lookout for humorous bits and gags, once even investigating whether he could fly a prize-winning, 740-pound gourd from the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin festival to New York to appear on the show.

In 1995, he moved to Los Angeles, where he wrote and produced “Just Shoot Me!,” an NBC comedy about a fashion magazine, for seven seasons. He and Nia Vardalos co-created the 2003 CBS series “My Big Fat Greek Life,” based on Vardalos’ hit film, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”

Among many other credits, he was a producer for “Last Man Standing” with Tim Allen and, most recently, a producer on “Fuller House,” a Netflix sequel to the hit 1980s show “Full House.” For many years, he also contributed humor articles to the New Yorker magazine.

Shaun Cassidy, a former pop star and actor who created and produced the comedy “Ruby & the Rockits” with Mr. McCall in 2009, remembered him fondly.

“Though possessed of a bad-ass gunfighter name, something out of Zane Grey, Marsh was one of the kindest and gentlest men I have known,” Cassidy said. “A brilliantly funny writer, Marsh’s humor didn’t come from a dark place but from an almost Victorian, and often absurdist, view of the world.

“Marsh loved people and their odd quirks, and his ability to comment on them without inflicting pain made him unique. Beyond that, he was a dedicated husband, father and friend. We will all miss him terribly.”

A memorial service was held Saturday at Hollywood United Methodist Church on what would have been Mr. McCall’s 53rd birthday.

Mr. McCall is survived by his wife, film producer Jasa Karan McCall; daughter, Stella, of Los Angeles County; mother, Martha McCall of Palo Alto; father, Marsh McCall of Stanford; and two brothers, Tom McCall of Littleton, Colo., and Ross McCall of Boulder, Colo.

Contributions may be made to School On Wheels, www.schoolonwheels.org, or renovation of the 1929 Casavant organ at Hollywood United Methodist Church, www.hollywoodumc.org/all-in.